Contents

Early life

Brian Henson was the third child of Jim and Jane Henson. As a child, he made several cameo appearances in Sesame Street segments, notably counting three peas, eight ping-pong balls, and various types of coins in the "Number Song Series." His first Sesame Street cameo, however, was in a film in which he and another boy play in the sand, pretending to be vehicles.[2] As he got older, he built the very first Muppet Penguin puppet for an episode of The Muppet Show.[3] During a summer break from high school, he assisted in the bicycle sequence from The Great Muppet Caper. He helped create and operate a special rigging device that was created to allow the Muppets to ride bicycles, since he was skilled in the use of marionette puppets.[4] A few years later, he operated a marionette of Scooter riding a bicycle in The Muppets Take Manhattan.[5]
As a teenager, Brian Henson worked at Sesame Place one summer. One of his co-workers there was fellow future Muppeteer Bill Barretta. Henson recalled the experience:

“

I was just a typical 17 year-old. I wanted a summer job, I didn't want to live at home, and I was very into being independent and living by my own means. Basically, my father suggested, "Maybe you want to go work at Sesame Place." My sister had a friend whose family owned a boarding house in Princeton, New Jersey – so that was why I really went to do it. I was basically helping kids who were crying on the rides and cleaning up bathrooms and smiling a lot with everybody else who ran Sesame Place. I think Sesame Place really wasn't part of an ambitious move – I was just a kid with a summer job. But I did meet people who I've continued to know all my life; who are all very successful in the film industry... Which is really kind of weird, that you'd go to this small town amusement park and be picking up cigarette butts with three other guys, and then 20 years later they're all big shots in the film industry.[6]

”

During the 1980s, Henson wanted to make a name for himself and find work without his father's help.[7] He performed Jack Pumpkinhead in Return to Oz, operated special effects in Santa Claus: The Movie, and was a principal performer for the Audrey II puppet in Little Shop of Horrors, controlling mouth movement while others performed the lips and vines. In an 2013 interview, Henson discussed the difference between working on Return to Oz and working on a Muppet movie:

“

It’s quite different, because you’re basically shooting a live-action movie, not a puppet movie. [Director] Walter Murch had a real shooting style that was very important to him. He’s a very careful, considered director. He really knew what he wanted. Whereas with a Muppet movie, you design how you’re going to shoot the movie around what puppets can do. This was different. We kind of had to figure out how to do every shot he wanted to do. We had five or six versions of every puppet, so the moment when Jack stands up full figure is actually a puppet made to complete that one motion. It was a different time when you could really take apart every shot and really build and prepare for every shot. Which is similar to the way post-production is approached together today, but pre-production never is anymore.[8]

Brian Henson has a biographical involvement in the Creature Shop with the assistance of Kevin Clash.[9]:

“

Once Jim Henson’s Creature Shop was firmly established in London after the end of Labyrinth production, everyone was eager to take advantage of the talent assembled. The shop had made the characters for the feature film Dream Child in 1984 and then in 1986, made a Koala for Qantas Airlines. Jim hoped to continue with these types of outside project as a way to keep everyone busy between Henson projects, but with the good response to The Storyteller pilot, it was clear there would be opportunities to continue with his own work in the UK. While the Creature Shop’s Henson work had, until that time, focused on feature films, several television projects were on the horizon and it was clear talent was needed for the eight additional Storyteller episodes, Greek Myths, Mother Goose Stories and The Ghost of Faffner Hall.

Brian Henson was chief puppeteer on Labyrinth, assisted by Kevin Clash. The two worked well together and had run a puppeteers workshop to cast the background puppeteers for the film. They knew a small group of performers but hoped to expand for the upcoming television productions. At that time, according to Brian, lots of performers listed “puppeteer” on their resumes, but their skills were really in the performance of animatronic creatures not hand-puppets. For the new television work planned, hand puppeteers were required. To identify people with potential and to develop a base of performers in London, Brian put out an open call. In response, hundreds of resumes poured in and were reviewed for the 1987 workshop. About 250 people were given auditions on the rehearsal stage upstairs at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. Brian and Kevin narrowed the group down to about forty to start training and then reduced the group to twenty. By the end of the two weeks, about ten performers had been chosen for screen tests. Brian reviewed the footage with Jim and from a group that included John Eccleston, Alistair Fullarton, Mike Quinn, Marcus Clarke and others, they chose performers for the various projects shooting in the UK.

Puppeteer workshops and training have a long history at Henson. In 1970, Jim held a workshop to expand his puppeteer roster going into the production of The Great Santa Claus Switch – there he found Fran Brill and Richard Hunt. Brian ran workshops for both Dinosaurs and Muppets Tonight. Jane Henson held informal training sessions regularly over the years. Henson puppeteers routinely travel abroad to train puppeteers for the international co-productions of Sesame Street. And Jim, when he could squeeze it into his schedule, was happy to share his craft with puppetry students. During the summer after the London workshop, Jim and Brian went to the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, France and spent a couple weeks teaching young performers and sharing their insights.

”

Henson Company involvement

In 1990, after the death of Jim Henson and the dissolution of the company's planned merger with The Walt Disney Company, Brian, along with his other siblings, took over operations of The Jim Henson Company.

In January 1991, at the age of 27, Brian was named President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of the Henson Company.

In 1995, the Henson Company created the Office of the President and longtime Henson executive Charles Rivkin became President and Chief Operating Officer, while Brian became President and Chief Executive Officer.

After the sale to EM.TV in 2000, Brian became chairman until he resigned in 2002. One year later, he led his siblings in the re-acquisition of the Henson Company from EM.TV.

Brian Henson also recently directed Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. He performed Augustus Pfiffle in Late Night Buffet with Augie and Del, a puppet-hosted, improvisational talk show, in which he has joined once again with Bill Barretta, who performed co-host Delbert Kastle. He is also involved with Puppet Up. In 2007, Barretta and Henson wrote, produced, and directed LOGO's Tinseltown, and they perform the puppets of Bobby Vegan and Samson Knight. He also directed and is executive producer of Sid the Science Kid. Henson is currently the lead judge of a reality series, Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge.